HP Stacking – Troubleshooting Not Joining Issues

hpstacking

I have 2 HP 2920 switches and they aren't stacking as I'm expecting.
Both models are the J9729A, however one is Aruba branded and one is the original HP brand. Everywhere I read this shouldn't be an issue, and the Aruba rebrand was simply that – a rebrand with no technical change.

Both switches are detecting the stacking module in the rear – both have the module light lit. However there doesn't appear to be a link between the switches as the port 1 and/or port 2 lights are not lit. As well running show stacking detail shows both ports as inactive. I've tried connecting the stacking ports in all combinations 1>1 , 1>2 , 2>1 and 2>2.

Stacking is enabled on both, and I've tried following the procedures here with no luck. http://h22208.www2.hpe.com/eginfolib/networking/docs/switches/WB/15-18/5998-8156_wb_2926_atmg/content/ch06s02.html

I've tried firmwares 16.03.0003, 16.03.0007, and 16.05.0007 (Latest).

I've now tried doing an erase all and stacking factory-reset on both, then powered on one switch fully, entered stacking set-stack, then the other. Still not detecting the link and both switches are acting as their own Commander.

Do you have any idea what could be going on here?

Best Answer

This was due to either a faulty or incompatible cable

The cable which I was having trouble with has Amphenol branding on it and part number;
HP P/N: 691970-001 REV G

The cable which is working is HP branded and has the J9735A Part Number on it.

Related Solutions

Cisco Stacking – How to Remove Switch Provisioning from Individual Switches

You need to un-provision the removed switch(es) and renumber the current one to be the 1st switch.

Your two switches are now standalone switches. In fact, each of them has turned into a single-switch stack and been acting a role of Active/Master.

To verfiy all previously-provisioned switches and their numbers, issue the commands show run | i provision and show switch.

Below are the sample outputs on a standalone switch which was the 2nd switch of an old two-switch stack (after being broken into two single devices):

#show run | i provision
switch 1 provision ws-c2960x-48lps-l
switch 2 provision ws-c2960x-48lps-l

#show switch
Mac persistency wait time: Indefinite
                                             H/W   Current
Switch#   Role    Mac Address     Priority Version  State
------------------------------------------------------------
 1       Member   0000.0000.0000     0      0       Provisioned
*2       Active   aaaa.bbbb.cccc     15     A0      Ready

Now, the configuration of already-removed switch (1st switch) is still alive on this 2nd switch. You need to unprovision 1st switch, renumber the 2nd switch and reload the switch so it would remove the configuration of already-removed switch and become 1st switch (choose 'Yes' for all questions and save the configuration before reloading it).

    (config)#no switch 1 provision ws-c2960x-48lps-l
    (config)#end
    #switch 2 renumber 1
    #wr
    #reload

I hope it is helpful and answers your question.

Switch – D-Link Stacking

While I'm not familiar with that specific switch, there's basically two or three scenarios:

The switch configuration is wiped on both switches when you enable stacking.
The switch configuration is preserved on the first, "master" switch when you enable stacking, and wiped on the following "slave" switches.
The switch configuration is preserved after enabling stacking on both switches.

HP 2920 switches for example follow scenario 2, where the master switch configuration is preserved, but any slave switches get a complete wipe. This is quite logical, as the master switch stores the configuration for all switches in the stack, and as such has no configuration for the ports on the slave switches.

Another thing to keep in mind is if your switches are "true" stacking switches, or "pseudo-stacking". Most HP switches for example has a "stacking" feature, but it doesn't do much more than allow management from a singular IP for all the switches in the stack. The aforementioned 2920 series on the other hand has "true" stacking, where the switches in the stack behaves as a single switch. The easiest way to tell is if the stacked switches support for example an LCAP trunk spread over multiple chassis. Another good indicator is if the switches has a dedicated special stacking module and cables, instead of using just normal Ethernet interfaces for the stacking.

A more meta question, what are you trying to gain from stacking these D-Links?

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